Part 31 (1/2)
”We obey thee, O mighty Istar!” rose from the throats of the a.s.sembled mult.i.tude as, with one accord, they moved back towards the ante-chamber, still keeping their faces towards the beautiful woman they wors.h.i.+pped.
Confusion spread for a few minutes, but at last all retired, save those grouped around the throne, and the great yellow curtain fell, leaving the brilliant Queen in ease and semi-privacy.
Wearied, she threw herself upon her great crystal lounge, lying gracefully back, with the toes of one bare foot just touching me, while her women crowded about and attended her at her elaborate toilet.
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
FORETOKENS.
Istar's white-robed women brushed out her hair, which fell about her like a cascade of rippling gold, bathed her face in a golden bowl filled with perfume, and gently washed her white hands. Then, when her toilet was complete, they retired at a sign, leaving me alone with her.
When all was silent she lifted her tiny foot from my neck and commanded me to rise.
”Tell me, whence comest thou?” she inquired, in a hard rasping voice, when I stood before her.
Our eyes met. Hers were of that unusual tint--almost violet. They held me in fascination.
”I came from the desert land two moon's march beyond thine,” I answered, noticing, at the same moment, that her shapely hands trembled. ”I entered thy dominion by the gate known to us as the Rock of the Great Sin, the secret way that no man hath before penetrated.”
”Thou hast discovered it!” she gasped excitedly, half rising from her crystal seat of royalty, gleaming with its thousand iridescent fires.
”Tell me, in which direction doth it lie?”
”Far north, beyond the Mountains of the Mist, beyond the ruins of the wondrous temple thine ancestor raised to Sin, the Moon-G.o.d.”
”But tell me the exact position of the rock of the great G.o.d Sin,” she demanded, eagerly. ”It is a spot which existeth in the sayings of the priests, but it hath been lost to all men in the mazes of legendary lore.”
”Its exact position I cannot accurately describe,” I answered. ”Since pa.s.sing through it and deciphering the rock-tablet of Semiramis, I have travelled many days in forest and over plain and mountain.”
”Couldst thou not guide me thither?” she asked, eagerly.
”I fear I could not, O Queen,” I answered.
”Thou art, indeed, the Destroyer; the man who is my bitterest enemy,”
she observed, in a deeply reflective tone.
”How?” I inquired. ”Surely I have done thee no wrong!”
”Since the day of Semiramis, the founder of Babylon and of Ea, it hath been told to each generation by our sages that a dark-faced stranger from the north shall one day enter our impregnable kingdom and approach its ruler,” she said, hoa.r.s.ely. ”His entry shall be the curse that Anu, G.o.d of Destruction, hath placed upon our land, and this our city, with walls unbreakable, shall be overthrown and crumble into dust. When Semiramis founded this our land of Ea, she made not sufficient sacrifice unto Anu, therefore the dread G.o.d overthrew her colossal Temple of the Sun, and laid a curse upon the city, saying that he would one day direct hereto the steps of a man from the world beyond, and that this man should be the Destroyer. Thou art the one sent by Anu.”
She had fixed her brilliant eyes upon me, holding me transfixed. There was in her face a strange look of combined terror and hatred.
”Well,” I said, after a pause, ”believest thou that I am the prophesied doer of evil?”
”a.s.suredly thou art,” she answered. ”All is evil in thine accursed world beyond.”
”And thou, the G.o.ddess Istar, believest that I am capable of working evil against this thy giant city!” I observed, smiling. ”Thou fearest that I am possessed of the evil-eye.”
”Thy coming fulfilleth the prophecies of our priests through ages,” she answered, in a low, harsh tone. ”Thou art mine enemy. I, my people and my land are doomed.”
”This, then, was the reason that I was cast into the lion-pit,” I observed.